The people behind Benchwarmers Bagels have a new doughnut shop on the way in Raleigh
In the early days of the pandemic, the owners of Benchwarmers Bagels wondered if the world would still need a bagel, if in a time of uncertainty there was any comfort to be found in cream cheese.
The bagel shop in Raleigh’s Transfer Co. Food Hall stripped down the menu to just bagels and cream cheese — and sold out early in the morning.
“I think it was people saying, ‘We’re here for you,’” said co-owner Sam Kirkpatrick. “I bet some of those bagels were thrown away that first week because people ordered so many. It was a sign of trust and hope.”
Now, the teams behind Benchwarmers Bagels, Boulted Bread and Jubala Coffee are expanding with a new project born from the pandemic.
Bright Spot Donuts, the new shop in the Benchwarmers family, will open at 1501 Sunrise Ave. in the Five Points East neighborhood in Raleigh. The star will be a glazed yeast doughnut, with a few other classics and seasonal filled varieties.
The owners are Kirkpatrick and Josh Bellamy, who started Boulted Bread; Andrew Cash of Jubala Coffee; Benchwarmers head chef John Knox; and Benchwarmers brand director Sarah Millsaps.
Thinking about the airy sweetness of doughnuts became a kind of practice in positivity during the pandemic, the owners said.
“This is one of the futures we decided to believe in — joy,” Kirkpatrick said. “There aren’t too many foods that define joy better than doughnuts.”
The name Bright Spot might not exist without the last year, one where virtually everyone suffered some kind of loss or pain. The doughnut shop, Kirkpatrick said, is a way to memorialize the last year and try to carry it forward into better times.
“We wanted to make sure we marked the moment,” he said. “Sarah has reminded us that the bright spot doesn’t exist without the dark.”
But even then, Millsaps said, the silver linings aren’t always obvious.
“It definitely takes work,” Millsaps said. “Bright spots don’t just appear, you have to see them.”
Bright Spot Donuts
The Bright Spot space will be around 800 square feet, a good portion of which will be the fryer and glazing station where diners can watch the fresh-from-the-fryer doughnuts coated in silken sugar. There will be an espresso and coffee program built by Cash.
The small building is currently being renovated and will have part of a wall removed. It will be replaced with larger windows looking toward downtown Raleigh and a door leading to a side patio.
The goal is to open Bright Spot by the end of 2021.
“If we catch it this year, it will be a win,” Kirkpatrick said.
Kirkpatrick said Britts Donut Shop, a Carolina Beach favorite where fans line up in the summer for glazed yeast doughnuts, was something of an inspiration
“The peak in everyone’s mind is Britts,” Kirkpatrick said. “You basically can’t eat enough of them. We have so much awe and respect for institutions like that.”
At the Bright Spot shop, the menu will be tight, Kirkpatrick said.
“The foundation of the doughnut menu is a glazed, we have high hopes for that,” Kirkpatrick said.
Knox will also lead the kitchen at Bright Spot, creating seasonal fillings and some secret savory offerings. He grew up loving Krispy Kreme, perhaps the worldwide doughnut standard, but expect some new creations from Bright Spot.
“Everyone has a nostalgic doughnut they love, but everyone seems open to try new things,” Knox said. “No one is going to say, ‘Doughnut? I don’t want to try that.’”
Pre-pandemic plans
Before the pandemic, Benchwarmers was flying high. The bagel shop was named one of Bon Appetit’s best new restaurants in the country in 2019. From there, it started expanding into dinner service, adding rectangular pizzas and serving ambitious specials, like braised lamb and ricotta dumplings and roasted squash and foie gras.
Then the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020 threw Benchwarmers and every other restaurant into a tailspin.
“We were coming together and trying to stay open, but there were several crazy weeks leading up to the moment where it was impossible to go on in the same way,” Kirkpatrick said. “We wondered, how far can we strip this down? Will people keep coming if we only have bagels and tubs of cream cheese and a bare bones coffee menu?”
People did and then some. Benchwarmers moved entirely online for months and served bagels and coffee out of the food hall’s side door. Now things are nearly back to normal, with the menu nearly built back what it was pre-pandemic.
Institutions
The Bright Spot owners are thinking long-term, wondering what the next Raleigh institutions will be and whether they might include a bagel shop, a bakery and a doughnut spot.
“We want to have kids here who are going to bring their kids here in 30 years and say, ‘This is my favorite doughnut of all time,’” Knox said. “Our favorite places have been around since the ’50s and before. So that’s the goal.”
The five owners — all Raleigh natives — have no plans of going anywhere else.
“We all grew up here, so it’s personal,” Kirkpatrick said. “If we build something, we want it to last, we want it to impact and participate in this hometown that raised us.”
This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 8:00 AM with the headline "The people behind Benchwarmers Bagels have a new doughnut shop on the way in Raleigh."
